> I'm curious.....where are you getting your references to "spey hooks"? I've > only seen modern hooks labeled "spey" hooks. I've been trying to find > references to the old spey hooks and as far as I can tell the patterns were > tied on long shanked salmon irons. I have been able to find one reference > to old dee hooks.
Hey Deb, The "older" spey hooks, as far as I can tell, were hand- crafted salmon irons, and therefore were unique in one way or another. Those that were mass- produced really didn't come about until (just a guess on my part) the mid-1800's, and have the *MODERN* hook bend of the Alex Jackson/ Spey wet- fly hook, at least by comparing pictures in books to the modern things I have now... keeping in mind that the figures in books that I have are all hand- drawn and from the early 1920's, not the 1850's or so. I'm not educated in hooks, and won't try to pretend I know the stuff, but I do have a bunch of books that may cover the topic...I may be totally off here. I wrote the previous post in a flurry of "hey, cool, something I am really into" and likely messed up what I was saying - apologies if I insulted someone's hobby or business of hook- making by incorrectly stating my assumptions. The "traditional" hooks shown (hand- drawn) in Arthur Edward Knox's 'Autumns on the Spey' are anything but detailed, and I apologize for making such fast generalizations about these hooks. To be honest, a kindergarderner's letter "C" may be clearer... There were obviously Spey flies from before this book (early 1870's is when it was first published, if I recall correctly), came out, but few were ever recorded, much less documented in a pictorial fashion, at least to my knowledge, save Francis Francis' book from 1867 (poor guy, what were his parent's thinking with that name?). I do know of two flies that fit the bill which are mentioned in my copy of Stoddart's "Angler's Companion to the Rivers and Lochs of Scotland", but all that is mentioned is the pattern and that the hook eye was pounded into what we call a "spade- eye" today. When I said "Traditional", I should have said "modern flies in the Spey style" to avoid confusion... the difference being the age of components and the changes in tying materials and styles. >>Also, traditional hooks are up- eyed and comparable to the Alec Jackson / >>Salmon hooks of today. I was way wrong to write it like that. The older hooks had up- eyes, or at least some did (William Blacker or John Grant, I forget who was the author and who tied the fly - John McPherson Grant was a wonderful Ghillie at Ballindalloch Castle (sp?), so likely he tied the fly... ANYHOW) -- The book "Art of Fly Making", which was first published in 1842 (I only have the centenial reproduction, though I would LOVE to have an original) describes a fly that was "about the size of a C or Drake [with the pattern all laid out following]...and a small black head around the line's up- tie. [I had read this as the hook's UP-EYE, though the style of eye is left to guessing, as I just found out. He goes on to say...] It was one of my flies, which, if made on large size hooks, will kill anywhere". Bottom line is, I read this and read into what was there; what was written was that the head of the fly was at the place where a line (I'm guessing of horse- hair, but I'm not sure) came and lashed to the hook, but I read it in MY lingo, as an "up-tie" equals an "up- turned eye", not a "tied up / snelled / lashed up hook" as the author meant. There are several color plates (hand- drawn) in this (William Blacker's) book (just got it down off the shelf to write the quote) that have materials in them... but I have yet to find a plate with hooks drawn - too late to scan every single page, but I don't remember seeing any. I just looked up Francis Francis' 1867 "A book on Angling" (I only have the 1920 reprint by Herbert maxwell, which is how I have this quote)... he speaks of the Spey Dog, which oddly is a fly that was really popular on the Aberdeenshire stretch of the River Dee. Anyhow, he writes, "...This is usually dressed large for the spring, the long- shanked Dee hooks being preferred..." but the only pictures are from the 1920 reprint and reproduction of the patterns that were first written by Francis in the first publishing. So again, no luck finding what the early hooks looked like. I'm terribly sorry for my mistake and assumptions. I hope these quotes help more than confuse, and if I may help any, just ask. Unfortunately, I have yet to find anything hook-related, especially dealing with a template. Perchance I'll look some more tomorrow after church, but my wife is calling me to sleep - midnight. Pete
